Aston Villa: Happy 25th Birthday, Sam Johnstone

Aston Villa have reaped the benefits of having a dependable, fit and in-form goalkeeper these past 14 months, qualities absent at the club for the better part of three years.

Today, the 25th of March, 2018, we celebrate the birth of Manchester United goalkeeper turned Aston Villa-loanee, Sam Johnstone, now 25.

Sam came to us, like many, via the loan system. An outcast at the heavily fortified goalkeeper position at Manchester United, Sam was buried beneath a top three ‘keeper in the world in David De Gea, Argentina #1 Sergio Romero and fellow promising youngsters Joel Pereira and Dean Henderson. So highly thought of was Johnstone by Steve Bruce, that he became the manager’s first signing in January 2016. A further loan move this past summer contracted him to Aston Villa through this season.

Since his arrival, Johnstone has gone on to play every single minute of league action. By the time of this writing, Johnstone has played in 59 matches, compiling 23 clean sheets with 63 goals conceded (good for a 1.07 GAA).

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• Aston Villa sign winger Moussa Diaby from Bayer Leverkusen
• Aston Villa close in on deal to sign Pau Torres from Villareal

This got me to thinking: who, either statistically or subjectively, has been the best goalkeeper at Aston Villa the past, say, decade or so? People often forget Brad Guzan had an incredible run for awhile, but his legacy, fairly or unfairly, was entirely tarnished following relegation. In his three-plus years as Villa #1, Guzan had seasons where he conceded 65 and 61 goals in 30-plus league starts (yeah, the team collectively was terrible, barely staving off relegation for years).

Before Guzan, fellow American Brad Friedel had seasons of conceding 67 and 56 in 2010/2011 and 2008/2009. Sandwiched between was 2009/2010 where Aston Villa finished 6th in the Premier League. Before Friedel, Thomas Sörensen had a pair of good seasons and one poor. Peter Schmeichel manned the posts for one season, while David James largely featured at goalkeeper in two terrific campaigns prior to the Dane. Anything prior and we are back to the Mark Bosnich era.

After reflection, Aston Villa have been really fortunate in the goalkeeping department since the 1990s. Every year save 2014 to 2016 have seen competent performances from the goalkeeper collective.

Sam Johnstone is a continuation of that collective.

UTV